The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-06-10

4
doing its own work and not interfering
with each other; each of the four carry
ing its part in the great harm ony-the
bass, the alto, the tenor, the soprano, in
| the grand march of the Union.
| 1 congratulate you, the officers and sol.
diers of this National encampment, that
| if a foreign attack should at any time be
made you would be ready, and there
would be millions of the drilled men of
| North and South, like the men of my first
text, which could keep rank, and like the
men of my second text that would not
miss hair-breath.
! cat this National drill when ,thirty-one
| States of the Union are represented, and
/ between the decorations of the graves of
the Southern dead, which took place a
few days ago, and the decorations of the
| graves of the Northern dead which shall
take place tomorrow, would stir the
Christian patriotism and gratitude not
| only of this soldiery here present, but of
all the people, by putting before them
| the difference between these times, when
| the soldiers of all sections meet in peace,
and the times when they met in contest.
! Contrast the feeling of sectional bitter
ness in 1862 with the feeling of sectional
unity in 1887. At the first date the South
had banshed the National air. "The
| Star Span gled Banner" and the North had
banished the popular air of sway Down
| South in Dixie" The Northern people
were tmudsills' and the Southern people
| were white trash The more Southern
people killed in battle, the better the
North liked it. The more Northern peo-
| killed in battle, the better the South liked
it. For four years the head of Abraham
| Lincoln or Jefferson Davis would have
been worth million dollars if delivered
] on either side the line. No need now,
| standing in our pulpits and platforms,
of saying that the North and South did
not hate each other. To estimate how
| dearly they loved each other, count up
| the bombshells that were hurled, and the
! carbines that were loaded, ana the cav
! airy horses that were mounted; North
/ and South facing each other all around,
in the attempt to kill The two sections
not only marshaled all their earthly hos
| tilities, but tried to reach up and get hold
! of the sword of Heaven, and the prayer
| of the Northern and Southern pulpits
/ gave more information to the Heavens
/ about the best mode of settling this
! trouble than was ever used. For four
! years both sides tried to get hold Of the
/ Lords thunderbolts, but could not quite
! reach them. At the breaking out Of the
] war we had not for months heard of my
| dear uncle, Samuel j. Talmage, president
of the OglethOrpe University, in Georgia.
| He was about the grandest man / ever
/ knew, and as good as good could be. The
first we heard of him was his opening
| prayer in the Confederate Congress in
! Richmond, which was reported in the
New York papers, which prayer, if an
/ swered, would, to say the least, have left
| all his northern relatives in very uncom-
! Portable circumstances. The ministry at
the North prayed one way and the minis
| try at the South prayed the other way.
| No use in hiding the fact that the North
and the South cursed each other with a
\ whitening and all-consuming curse.
| s'BesIde that antipathy Of war time I
] ~, h. ,TzAo II ,g4 4I-t
Not long ago a meeting was held in New
| York to raise money to build a home at
! Richmond for crippled Confederate
| soldiers, the meeting presided
| over by a man who lost an arm and
/ leg in fighting on the Northern side, and
the leg not lost SO hurt that it does not
amount to much. The cotton exhibition
held not long ago in Atlanta was attended
/ by tens Of thousands of Northern people,
/ and by General Sherman, who was greet
! ed with kindness, as though they had
/ never seen him before. At the New
! Orleans exhibition, held two years ago,
/ every Northern State was represented. a
! thousand-fold kndlier feeling after the
war than before the war No more use
| for gunpowder in this country, except for
| rife practice or Fourth Of July pyrotech-
/ MICS, a shot at a roebucK in the Adiron-
/ dacks. BrigadIer Generals IN the Southern
! Confed eracy making their fortunes as
! lawyers in the Northern cities. Rivers Of
| Georgia, Ala bama and North Carolina
] turning mills of New England captali SITS.
/ The old lions of war-Fort Sumter, and
Moultrie, and Lafayette, and Pickens,
and Hamilton, sound asleep on
! their iron paws, and instead of
/ raising money to keep enemies out of our
| New York harbor. raising money for the
/ Bartholdi statue on Bcdloe's Island, fig
/ ure of Liberty with uplifted torch to light
| the way to all who want to come in. In
| stead Of war antipathles, when you could
not cross the line between the contestants
| without fighting your way with keen
! steel, or getting through by passes care
1 fully scrutluized at every step by bayo-
/ nets, you need only a railroad ticket from
| New York to Charleston or New Orleans
/ to go clear through, and there is no use
| for any weapon sharper or stronger than
| a steel pen. Since the years of time be-
! gan their roll has there ever been in .
! about two decades such an overwhelming
] antithesis as between the war time
! of complete bitterness and this time of
! complete sympathy9
Contrast also the domestic life Of those
! times with the domestic life Of these
| times. Many Of you are either leaving
home or far away from il, communicating
| by uncertain letter. What morning
/ that was when you left no mel Father and
mother crying, sisters crviug you smiling
/ outside, but crying, inside. Everybody
| nervous and excited. Boys of the blue
/ and grayi whether YOU started from the
| banks of the Hudson, or the Savannah, or
! the Androscog gin, don't you remem Der
| the scenes at the front door, at the rail
/ car window, on the steamboat landings.
/ The huzza could not drown out the sup
pressed sadness Don't you remember
| those charges to write home often,
and take good care Of yourself, be good
| boys and the goodbye kiss which they
! thought, and you thought, might
/ be forever9 Then the homesickness
| as you paced the river bank on a star
! light night on picket duty, and the sly
I tears which you wipet OF when you heard
a group at the campfire singing the
| plantation song about the old folks
| at home. The dinner Of hard-ta on
/ Thanksgiving Dav, the Christmas without
! any presents, and the long nights in the
| hospital so different from the sickness
when you were al home with mother and
| sister at the bedside, and the clock in the
/ hall giving the exact moment for the
/ medicine; and that forced march, when
/ your legs ached, and your head ached,
/ and your wounds ached and more than
/ all. your heart ached. Homesickness
/ which had in it a sufTocation and pang
worse than death. You never got harden
I'd as did the guardsman In the Crimean
/ war who heartlessly wrote home to hls
mother:
| do not want 70 see any more crying letters
/ come 10 the Crimea from yOu. Those have
received put into my rife after loading il, and
| have nred them at the Russi ans. because you
( appear TO have strong dislike Of them. II
! you had seen as MANY killed as have you
/ would not have as many weak ideas as you now
/ have.
You never felt like that When a sol
dier's knapsack was found after his death
in the American war there was generally
| a careful package containing a Bible, a
few photographs and letters from home.
/ On the other hand. tens OF thousands OF